Mountain Trout Streams, NC

As new resort and residential projects sprout up in the North Carolina mountains, we’ve seen a disturbing trend. Rather than incorporate natural waterways into the landscape, developers are

 
• piping long stretches of trout streams under golf courses
 
• impounding miles of free-flowing mountain streams to create artificial lakes and ponds
 
• stripping away protective buffers that keep these waters cool and clean.

SELC is taking action to defend clear-running mountain streams that provide of a host of ecological and economic benefits. They support wildlife, attract anglers, and supply clean water for downstream communities. We are pursuing several cases that raise related issues:

Cliffs at High Carolina: Trout Waters Saved from Burial
The Cliffs at High Carolina, a mountaintop resort community near Asheville, planned to pipe more than half a mile of trout waters underground to avoid stream crossings on the project’s Tiger Woods-designed golf course.  SELC challenged state approval of the project and, as a result, the Cliffs agreed in September 2010 to reduce impacts on headwater streams by almost half. It also agreed to preserve natural conditions around high-value streams elsewhere on its property. More details are in the press release.

Grandview Peaks: Trout Streams Kept Clear and Flowing
With the development boom has come a surge of plans to dam mountain streams to create lakes and ponds for new subdivisions. SELC weighed in heavily against one such proposal in McDowell County, which called for inundating more than a mile of free-flowing waters to form a lake and two ponds for the Grandview Peaks project. Heeding our advice, state regulators and the Army Corps of Engineers moved in September 2010 to reject the request. The decision will help put the brakes on similar proposals that threaten natural waterways in the mountains.

Mountain Air: Court Undercuts Trout Stream Buffers

North Carolina enacted buffer requirements for trout waters to maintain the cold, clear conditions the fish need to thrive. When the state’s Division of Land Resources allowed the Mountain Air Country Club in Yancey County to ignore these requirements as it developed a golf course, SELC and its partners filed suit.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled in our favor in November 2009, but rather than enforce the safeguards we restored, the state challenged our victory in the North Carolina Supreme Court. In a huge loss for trout streams and those who love to fish in them, the Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s decision on August 27, 2010. More details are in the press release.